Jonah - Again

 I'm not sure how to handle this one. We are at the point in the year where in the reading program last week we read Jonah. That means that I need to write something about it, but I've also been trying to do more with the website, so I wrote a few things about Jonah on that too. So, what is something new that I can write about with Jonah? That brought me all the way back to Jonah chapter one. Jonah knows that he is the reason for the storm. Everyone on board knows that someone on the ship is to blame for the rough seas. This is how they find out that Jonah is to blame, this is Jonah 1:7-9.

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 

Jonah is quick to admit where he is from, and that he worships the Lord, who made the sea and the dry land. This is the part I want to focus on today, they ask Jonah how they should handle him, and this is his response in verses 11-16.

11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. 

Jonah knew that the only way to find peace was to throw him overboard. Jonah knew that the only way to calm the sea, was to get rid the issue on board. That leads me to two questions of focus today. One, when we know what is causing the storm in our lives, do we get rid of it? When we have sin in our lives that we know is there, but we aren't removing it, we can't have peace. We need to repent and run away from sin. Two, are we aware of the times that we are causing a storm for someone else? Have you ever shared the latest gossip? Do you have someone in your life that maybe you need to apologize to? The challenge for me is, if I am causing an issue for someone, can I either fix it or be strong enough to remove myself from the situation? Am I willing to jump overboard and spend a few days in a big fish?  A lot of times I worry about spending time in a big fish or being sent to the desert for a time of preparation. Maybe instead of being afraid I need to embrace the situation and finally fix what I am doing wrong. Fixing it yourself is a lot of better than being forced overboard!

Proverbs

 I think one of the main reasons people read the bible is that they want direction. So many people feel lost, and they just want to open the bible randomly and they expect that God will provide a miracle and have them somehow turn to the exact page that they need to get the answer they want. A quicker way might be to just read through the book of Proverbs as often as possible. I've heard of people who read through the books of Psalms and Proverbs every month. It works out really well because the book of Psalms has 150 chapters and Proverbs has 30, so read four chapters every day and by the end of every month, you are good. Let's start out by looking at what it says at the start of the book in Proverbs chapter one.

1 The Purpose of Proverbs

These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. 2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. 3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. 4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. 5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance 6 by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. 7 Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. 

What else can I add to that? People spend thousands of dollars every year on getting this kind of information. So, I wanted to just take a look at 20 of the chapters of the book and let the bible give you some advice.

Proverbs 1:10

10 My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them!

Proverbs 2:1-6

The Benefits of Wisdom

1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. 2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. 3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. 4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 

Proverbs 3:1-4

Trusting in the Lord

1 My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. 2 If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. 3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. 4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. 

Proverbs 4:23-27

23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. 24 Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. 25 Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. 26 Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. 27 Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

Proverbs 5:21-23

21 For the LORD sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. 22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. 

23 He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness. 

Proverbs 6:6-11

6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! 7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, 

8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. 9 But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? 10 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— 11 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. 

So far what I am hearing is Get Wisdom, Listen to God and work. When you listen to God and follow what he says and work hard, you will have a good life. It doesn't mean it will be perfect, but so many of the issues that people have you can avoid.

Proverbs 9:8-9

8 So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you. But correct the wise, 

and they will love you. 9 Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more. 

Proverbs 10:19

19 Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.

Proverbs 12:1

1 To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction. 

Proverbs 13:10

10 Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise. 

Proverbs 14:12

12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Proverbs 15:16-17

16 Better to have little, with fear for the Lord, than to have great treasure and inner turmoil. 17 A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate. 

So much great advice in such small sentences. I feel like these verses are telling me to shut my mouth, listen to others and be around good people. When you keep running your mouth you stop listening to others, that leads to pride. You might be sitting at the table with a huge steak in front of you, but you won't be happy, and you won't like who you are sitting with.

Proverbs 16:1-3

1 We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer. 2 People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives. 3 Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed. 

Proverbs 17:9

⁹ Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. 

Proverbs 18:1-2

1 Unfriendly people care only about themselves; they lash out at common sense. 2 Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions. 

Proverbs 19:3

3 People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD. 

Proverbs 20:1

1 Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray by drink cannot be wise. 

Proverbs 21:5

5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. 

Proverbs 23:17-18

17 Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the LORD. 18 You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed. 

I want to focus on three of these verses really quickly because I think they are so impactful.

Proverbs 17:9, Love prospers when we forgive. Proverbs 19:3, People ruin their lives, then get angry at the Lord. Finally, Proverbs 23:17, Don't envy sinners. I think we fall into this trap way more than we want to admit. Someone wrongs us, and we hold onto it forever, then we can't figure out why we wake up grumpy every morning. When we envy sinners, we mess up our lives, then we take it out on God. We blame him for every bad decision that we made.  We have talked about this before, but people are going to hurt you. If you ever want to move on, you have to forgive. 

Proverbs 24:15-16

15 Don’t wait in ambush at the home of the godly, and don’t raid the house where the godly live. 16 The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked. 

Proverbs 25:2-3

2 It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them. 3 No one can comprehend the height of heaven, the depth of the earth, or all that goes on in the king’s mind! 

I want to finish on this last one, way too often we think that if we could just understand everything about God and what he does we would be faithful. We can't and you won't! The bible is very clear that God is so amazing, we just can't understand it or comprehend it. I encourage everyone to read through Proverbs on a regular basis, Gain wisdom!

Amos

 Amos is a book that does not get a lot of attention. When I looked it up in one of my bibles, it said that Amos was written between 760 and 750 b.c. It's purpose was to pronounce God's judgement upon Israel for its complacency, idolatry and oppression of the poor.  It also said that he was not an educated priest, he was a shepherd and sycamore-fig tree farmer. I'm not a shepherd or a tree farmer, but I feel like I can relate to him more than I could a prophet, so I'm already intrigued.  The book starts with an introduction and the reason for the book. 

Chapter 1

This message was given to Amos, a shepherd from the town of Tekoa in Judah. He received this message in visions two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam II, the son of Jehoash, was king of Israel. 

2 This is what he saw and heard: 

    “The LORD’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem! The lush pastures of the shepherds will dry up; the grass on Mount Carmel will wither and die.” 

From there, he talks about God's judgement on Israel's neighbors. I know that all of that is important, but I want to focus more on what is said about Israel. Starting in chapter 2 verse 4, he starts to talk about Israel and Judah.

God’s Judgment on Judah and Israel

4 This is what the LORD says: 

    “The people of Judah have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They have rejected the instruction of the LORD, refusing to obey his decrees. They have been led astray by the same lies that deceived their ancestors. 5 So I will send down fire on Judah, and all the fortresses of Jerusalem will be destroyed.” 

6 This is what the LORD says: 

    “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name. 8 At their religious festivals, they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security. In the house of their gods, they drink wine bought with unjust fines. 9 “But as my people watched, I destroyed the Amorites, though they were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks. I destroyed the fruit on their branches and dug out their roots. 10 It was I who rescued you from Egypt and led you through the desert for forty years, so you could possess the land of the Amorites. 11 I chose some of your sons to be prophets and others to be Nazirites. Can you deny this, my people of Israel?” asks the LORD. 12 “But you caused the Nazirites to sin by making them drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, ‘Shut up!’ 13 “So I will make you groan like a wagon loaded down with sheaves of grain. 14 Your fastest runners will not get away. The strongest among you will become weak. Even mighty warriors will be unable to save themselves. 15 The archers will not stand their ground. The swiftest runners won’t be fast enough to escape. Even those riding horses won’t be able to save themselves. 16 On that day the most courageous of your fighting men will drop their weapons and run for their lives,”    says the LORD. 

If you get nothing else from this post, I want everyone to focus on why God is punishing them. Look at what sins God has pointed out. In verse four, the people have sinned again and again. They have rejected the instruction of the Lord, refusing to obey his decrees. They have been led astray by the same lies that deceived their ancestors. Does this sound familiar? If we continue to where he is talking about Israel, starting in verse seven. Trample helpless people and shove the oppressed out of the way. Now listen to what I would call the big things. You caused the Nazirites to drink wine, you commanded the prophets to shut up. It also said they he destroyed the Amorites, though they were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks. The Nazarites were a group of people who were forbidden to drink wine. So, what he is saying is that the people who are supposed to be the religious examples of the time, God's chosen people, were causing people to sin. When they were confronted by someone with a message from God, they told them to shut up. He also points to a strong nation that was destroyed even though they seemed unstoppable. If someone asked me to name a strong religious group, who was chosen by God and lived in a powerful nation, I would think that they were talking about Christians living in the United States. I know Amos wasn't talking to me, but I think the argument can be made, that he was talking to me.

Now, let's take a look at the coming judgement in chapter five, starting in verse eighteen.

Warning of Coming Judgment

    18 What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the LORD were here!” 

    You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. 

    19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. 

    Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake. 20 Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. 21 “I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. 

25 “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? 26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies. 

What a vivid image! I'm being attacked by a lion, I escape, but run into a bear. I get away from the bear but end up getting bit by a snake. In verse twenty-seven, he finally says they will be going into exile. They try and get rid of Amos in chapter seven, and this is his reply.

14 But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the LORD called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’ 16 Now then, listen to this message from the LORD: 

    “You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel. Stop preaching against my people.’ 17 But this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in this city, and your sons and daughters will be killed. Your land will be divided up, and you yourself will die in a foreign land.  And the people of Israel will certainly become captives in exile, far from their homeland.’ ” 

Again, he let them know they would be going into exile. He also showed that God can use anyone to warn us. In this day and age, we think that a popular preacher or someone well known will be the person to warn us, look out for the shepherd or the farmer, God uses them too.

Finally let's look at how the book of Amos ends in chapter nine, verses fourteen and fifteen.

    14 I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine. 15 I will firmly plant them there in their own land. They will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God. 

We have hope, we can always repent. The people of Israel and Judah didn't learn. They never repented. When I listen to what Amos is saying, it scares me. It scares me that all of that stuff is still true today and it scares me that I am guilty. We have time to repent, and we have time to listen to the instruction of the Lord.